The route taken by the "Spirit of St Exupery" between Sao Tomé and St. Helena couldn't be more direct. In five hours of flight at an altitude of 29,000 feet (FL 290), we follow a straight trajectory, losing radio contact with Ghana shortly after takeoff.
Ahead of us, 2,000 kilometers away, lies a small island, St. Helena, with a brand-new airport built in 2017, which was closed during the pandemic.
With no radar, our PC-12 flies over an ocean of deep blue, without clouds or boats, and with no turbulence! There are no other planes in the airspace we traverse.
At 45 minutes from landing, a crystal-clear voice welcomes us to St. Helena and informs us of the magnificent weather conditions for our arrival.
The airport is renowned for its shear at the runway threshold, without an alternate aerodrome. Many planes take several attempts to land there, up to 5 times! We approach from a high altitude, the PC-12's performance allowing us to dive towards the runway threshold, having enough resources to counteract the indeed strong shear, and land smoothly.
On the ground, we are deeply honored by the warm welcome from Governor Nigel Philipps and his wife Emma. St. Helena, with its rich maritime history, has been a mandatory stopover for ships from various commercial companies such as the VOC (Dutch East India Company) and later the British East India Company since the 16th century. But the island is best known for hosting Emperor Napoleon in exile for seven years until his death on May 5, 1821.
The island then became a port of call for all French commercial or military ships coming to pay homage to their emperor.
Today, St. Helena is a very welcoming island with a community of 5,000 people, breathtaking landscapes, and protected marine environments rich in marine fauna and wrecks, of course!
The French curator of St. Helena's assets and museum curator for 35 years, Michel Dancoine Martineau, is a true living encyclopedia of the island's history. His father was also a consul and curator on the island, so over 80 years of accumulated history of St. Helena!
We thus relive, month by month, the 7 years of Napoleon's life in St. Helena in his residence at Longwood, beaten by winds and mist in winter.
We are invited to sleep in Napoleon's house, in the very bed of the generals who accompanied him in his exile. A ceremony is organized around the emperor's tomb, which is surrounded by lush greenery and giant bougainvillea in bloom.
Met at the airport, the Governor of the island Nigel and Emma Phillips, who represent the British government, invite us for tea at the Plantation House residence.
This island, along with Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, is very strategic for both the British and Americans. It is a gateway to the Falkland Islands, southern America, and Antarctica. Moreover, the purity of the sky makes it an exceptional listening base.
Notably, Plantation House is also home to an extraordinary inhabitant: Jonathan, a giant tortoise born in 1838, making him the oldest animal on Earth!
We celebrate this encounter by adopting Jonathan as an honorary member of the NYC Explorers Club.
Later, we also witness the conservation efforts led by Rebecca Cairns Wicks and her team at the St. Helena Research Center to protect the island's fauna and flora.
We accompany them to inventory endemic plants, an expedition part of a mission aiming to protect the island's wildlife from certain diseases. These long walks over very rugged terrain above Sandy Beach and Blue Hills are memorable.
The volcanic island offers extremely varied landscapes. The maritime teams then take us on their search for whale sharks that roam the Gulf of Guinea corridor and descend to rest in St. Helena.
In return, we offer them a flyover of the island for 5 people. One of them is Byron, for whom it is a maiden flight!
At the island's archives, we are fortunate to consult the maritime registers from the years 1750 to 1790, noting the arrivals of all French and British explorers who made stopovers in St. Helena.
Nathaniel Portlock is one of them. He is an English and American sailor, second to James Cook, who made a fortune in the fur trade. In late 1788, he met in a bar in Jamestown, the capital, a certain Étienne Marchand, a 24-year-old French sailor.
This encounter changed Marchand's life, as upon his return to France, he also decided to circumnavigate the globe and make a fortune on the American west coast (long before the tech hubs). He is one of the explorers featured in my book "Daring French Explorations".
With a heavy heart, the "Spirit of St Exupéry" must also continue its world tour in the footsteps of the great navigators of centuries past. A crossing of Africa awaits us before joining another ocean: the Indian Ocean.